


just a bit too alive

by syncopation



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Implied Nudity, M/M, Otherkin, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 09:44:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5452157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syncopation/pseuds/syncopation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you asked him if he worshiped anyone he would have said no, would have said that he doesn't believe in there being a higher power pulling strings, but now he's fallen for the god of art and death and music.</p><p>(he still can't believe it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	just a bit too alive

**Author's Note:**

> i started writing this right after finals and now its been like 3 weeks since

It's been long enough that neither remember how they met when they're curled around each other in the same bed years after meeting. What's remembered are insignificant, little steps that climb higher and higher to lead them where they are now. Neku's hand rested in between where Joshua described where his (soft, white, angelic) wings used to be, snickering when he kisses his (god's) lover's jaw and hears "You could be dead right now" in a hushed whisper. They're sweaty and the sheets are soiled but they're also in bliss and the covers can be changed and all is good.

Neku, half asleep whispers "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil" against Joshua's shoulder he feels little laughter, seeing Joshua shake out a chuckle as he looks him the eye, impossible blue framed by ginger hair and all-too-common brown eyes surrounded by a limp, dark halo of black. A brown that used to be vivid purple, black once ash colored and curly.

"For mine in the kingdom and the power and the glory forever."

Neku offers a kiss in place of a closing amen and his offering's accepted.

* * *

The verses and praise Neku stored away in the corners of his memory are there by heart. He doesn't remember actively going out and trying to remember anything, but they work when calming the raging god who realizes They just human now.

He covers Them in a mess of fake colored feathers taken from feathered scarves, paints arts onto Their skin, tracing wings with his fingers onto Their bare back with black paint and reciting songs and verses without knowing the meaning or even the words he's saying. When They become Joshua again it's barely any difference. There are still feathers everywhere and paint stains on the carpet and on clothes that couldn't be removed, but there's also laughter singing through the air.

Later in the night when everything's been cleaned and they're both in Natural Puppy pajamas Neku realizes that he never truly worships from his heart, only ever recites what he remembers from other people's words because his god doesn't want to share his thoughts and creations with anyone else.

* * *

He draws what Joshua describes himself once, gets told of all the things Joshua used to be, of what Joshua  _really_ is, and it's nothing short of amazing. City pollution substitutes hair, imagination replaces clothing, and thought makes facial features. He doesn't draw the wings, as important as they are. Neku can't comprehend them, the soul of a god being trapped in one form is beyond him, when he tries to his hand doesn't move, stays frozen above charcoal smudged paper in a mess of ash. He doesn't draw them and instead draws the other form that is and isn't Joshua, draws the city that Joshua bound himself to forever, glimmering in the background as vibrantly as Neku imagines Joshua would.

Neku's never even heard of a place called Shibuya. He still promises to go with Joshua some day to see his city.

* * *

Joshua asks if he worshiped anyone, if he even worshiped him. It's a conundrum to think about because no, he didn't worshiped anyone before and no, he doesn't think himself as a normal worshiper or even follower of any God. Joshua told him that he's not the only one to rule over a city, that there are countless others with different rules and different games. He tells Neku has played his game before, and can play only his games because there's no sharing someone so great as him. A scoff here and there and playful wrestling happens.

An hour later Neku says he loves Joshua, more than any worshiper ever could.

* * *

The God of art and death and music has a city to Themself but has no one praising Their name. Long ago They could have destroyed Their city-  _wanted_ to destroy it, to calm the brewing storm made by lovely thunder thoughts and cracking lightning voices and the cries of the helpless. They wanted to rid of it all, to rid of Themself. No one expected a human to be able to change Them. No one expected human that was dead but still just a bit to alive to change it all and be reborn with the God into the next life.

Too many years fixated under one immortal soul and too many kisses in the two lives lived by Joshua Kiryu.

Neku changed his music, changed his city's music, and continues to change the score of so many other people's.

(He still can't believe it.)

 


End file.
